loive at the southern borde as the u.s. and mexico hold crisis talks of the surge into the united states. we ll get an update of the meetings still underway, and the growing pressure on joe biden to take action. also this hour, the michigan supreme court rejecting a bid to remove donald trump from the primary ballot under the 14th amendment s insurrectionist ban. we ll break down the decision and how it differs from the colorado high court ruling that did bar trump from that state s ballot. plus, cnn investigating the shadowy world of dogfighting. our crew rode along for a federal crackdown on the blood sport that s thriving across the country. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i m kaitlan collins, and you re in the situation room. we begin tonight with those urgent border security talks underway in mexico at this hour. secretary of state antony ball blinking are pressing the mexican president to stem the su
and disregard them, the jury, as subjected to them, may not. the court shall not permit the defendant to turn the courtroom into a forum in which trump inject politics into this proceeding. jack smith then kicks off a highlight reel of trump s favorite spurious arguments, things like, trump, quotes complaints about the jury indictment and the trial date will interfere with his political activities. or trump s quote, false accusation was directed at the former president. jack smith also takes issue with some of the trump s favorite catch phrases like the injustice department or biden indictment. all of it, jack smith says, would taint a jury pool. quote, the in addition t being wrong, these allegations are irrelevant to the jury s determination of the defendant s guilt or innocence. it would be prejudicial if presented to the jury. put another way, the trump defense was, quote, repeatedly used rhetoric that made the acceptable on the campaign but not on the trial. make no mi
engaging in insurrection. plus explosions across ukraine after what kyiv calls the biggest wave of russian air attacks since the start of the invasion. and the moment people ran for their lives as a rogue wave slammed into the california coast. good morning. i m kasie hunt. it is friday, december 29. happy friday. 5:00 a.m. in washington and in maine, 2:00 a.m. out in california. those two states have differing decisions on whether to remove trump from the primary ballot over the 14th amendment insurrectionist ban. in california the secretary of state opted to keep trump on the ballot despite pressure from the lieutenant governor to remove the former president. contrast that with maine where yesterday democratic secretary of state 1450sheena bellows disqualified trump writing that it was an insurrection at the behest of then president trump. it became clear that it was an attack on the rule of law, that it was an insurrection and that the u.s. constitution does not tolera
primary contest. how people are reacting. plus, the city of new york ramping up security for the big party in sometimes square. how tensions over fighting in the middle east are playing a major factors. russia launching its largest aerial assault on ukraine since the start of the war. the images coming in as ukraine pleads for more military aid. we re beginning the hour with the new legal showdown over donald trump s eligibility to even be on the ballot. maine s secretary of state issuing a decision last night that the former president can t be a candidate in the primary, because he violated the constitution s insurrection clause. the weight of the evidence, all of the evidence made clear that mr. trump was aware of the by a multi-pronged effort to delegitimize a democratic election, the election of 2020, and then chose to light a match on january 6th. we should note on the same night we got that news from maine, the state of california made the op sid decision sayi
good morning. welcome to morning joe. that s a look at times square. we re a heart of hours the ball the will drop and we ll turn the page to 2024. good morning. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to this morning, including another state remove donald trump from the republican presidential ballot. we will have expert legal and political analysis on that big decision from maine s secretary of state. plus nikki haley s attempt at cleaning up her highly criticized answer on the cause of the civil war. also forces continue to strike refugee camps where it believes hamas terrorists are hiding. this comes as the biden administration is putting more pressure to protect civilians. plus we ll take a look at the stories that dominated 2023 from two wars overseas to chaos on capitol hill, as well as the former president s many legal battles as he enters the presidential election. a lot to go through. with us for all of us is nbc news national affairs analyst john heilem